The field of the invention is adjustable mounts for snowboard bindings.
Snowboarding is a sport wherein a person uses a snowboard for recreational travel down a snow-covered inclined surface. A mount fastens a binding to the snowboard. The popularity of snowboarding is growing all over the world. Snowboarding is beginning to rival skiing as a recreational sport. While snowboarding a person stands on the snowboard with both feet and his body angled to the longitudinal axis of the snowboard.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,261,698 teaches a binding whose rotational position relative to an axis perpendicular to a snowboard can be adjusted. The binding includes a hold-down plate and a binding base plate. The hold-down plate may be secured to the snowboard in several different positions on the board and is fixed to the snowboard by screws extending through a set of holes in the hold-down plate. The binding base plate can be rotated relative to the hold-down plate. The binding base plate and the hold-down plate each have ribs or ridges, respectively, which lock the angular position of the binding base plate relative to the hold-down plate. The rotational position of the binding base plate can only be adjusted by removing the boot from the binding base plate and disengaging the screws from the holes in the hold-down plate. Therefore, angular adjustment of the binding cannot be done "on the fly".
Some bindings permit a person using a snowboard to adjust their rotational orientation on the snowboard. The French company Look makes a binding which includes a circular plate and a footbed. The circular plate is attached to the snowboard by a set of screws which engage with the snowboard. The footbed has a central aperture for rotatably receiving the circular plate. A lock assembly locks the footbed in a predetermined rotational position with respect to the circular plate. A housing, including one or more fasteners, is attached to the footbed for securing a boot to the footbed so that the boot cannot be pulled free of the footbed except when the fasteners are released. A person adjusts the orientation of the binding at the beginning of the season and often makes no further adjustments.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,577,755 teaches a rotatable binding for a snowboard includes a base plate and a binding plate. The base plate is mounted on the snowboard. The binding plate is rotatably mounted on the base plate. The rotatable binding also includes a locking assembly which includes a pin and a foot binding. The locking assembly selectively locks, at a desired angle of rotation, the binding plate to the base plate. The base plate includes an indexing platform and a pedestal which is disposed on the bottom of the base plate. The indexing platform has a multiplicity of bores arranged in a circular arc about a central axis. The pedestal has a width about the width of a human foot and traverses the snowboard in order to support the indexing platform above the top surface of the snowboard. The pin does not restrict rotation of the binding base plate relative to the base plate and is selectively moveable from a raised position to a lowered position. The pin engages an indexing bore such that the binding plate may not rotate relative to the base plate.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,028,068 teaches a device which pivotally mounts a binding on a snowboard on the upper surface thereof. A manually operated handle allows the binding to be changed in any direction desired and thereafter with a flip of the handle locked into the selected position. The binding includes a binding base plate and a swivel plate. The binding base plate is mounted on the swivel plate.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,354,088 teaches a coupling which releasably mounts a binding to a turntable. The turntable is adjustably secured to a snowboard.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,871,337 teaches a snowboard in which the rider's feet are positionable within bindings which are formed on first and second riding plates. Each of the first and second riding plates is positionable above a channel section which is formed within a rider support surface of the riding apparatus. Each riding plate supports fasteners which are releasably engageable with retaining elements which are installed within the channel section. After loosening the fasteners from the retaining elements, each of the first and second riding plates may be repositioned angularly or longitudinally with respect to its channel section thereby permitting the snowboard to be used with a variety of stances and leg spacings.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,021,017 teaches a water sports board which has a base formed with rows of detent teeth for locking engagement with the peripheral teeth of binder plates. The binder plate may be angularly or longitudinally adjusted relative to the base. The board also has a pair of boots that are mounted to the binder plates and mounting assemblies for mounting the binder plates to the base. Today there exits several kinds of water sports boards including surfboards, kneeboards, water skis and boards upon which a rider, towed by a power boat, stands with his feet spread longitudinally apart upon the board. Some of these boards, including the last mentioned type to which this invention particularly pertains, are equipped with foot bindings to stabilize the rider upon the board and to enhance his foot control of the board. With this latter type of board, which has only recently obtained popularity, the rider positions his feet on the board one behind the other at a skewed angle with respect to the longitudinal axis of the board. This posture thus is similar to that used by surfers on surfboards. Initially these types of boards were merely equipped with strips of course, frictional material to provide foot traction. Since they were pulled in tow behind powerful motor boats riders quickly found that they were not able to maintain their feet in position well enough when subjected to strong tow rope pulling forces. These types of water sports boards are equipped with foot bindings. Water ski foot bindings include a toe piece and a heal piece mounted to the top surface of the ski. One of the pieces is usually adjustable to accommodate different skier foot sizes and to facilitate foot entry. Exemplary of these are those shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,933,741, U.S. Pat. No. 3,102,279 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,127,623. Water ski bindings have also existed by which the position of the whole binding for one foot may be repositioned upon the ski. Exemplary of this type of binding is that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,740,972. These water ski bindings however do not provide for angular foot adjustment since water skiing is best done with the skier's feet aligned with the skis. Recently, a board known as a Skurfer has been equipped with bindings that can be adjusted both longitudinally and angularly. Its bindings include oblong plates upon which toe and heal pieces, hereinafter collectively referred to as "boots", are mounted. The plates are held in position by threaded posts that extend through arcuate slots in holding the plates firmly in place at selected positions upon the board. Though these types of bindings have permitted both longitudinal and angular positioning, they have tended to loosen and skew in operation. Also, their degree of angular adjustment has been limited. It thus is seen that a water sports board of the type having foot bindings which can be more fully adjusted rotationally, as well as longitudinally adjusted, and which may be easily yet securely repositioned, has remained an elusive goal.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,433,636 teaches a snowboard which has a channel extending along a portion of the length thereof. Two bindings are secured to the snowboard through the channel. Each binding may be rotated between a locked starting position in which the long axis of the binding extends parallel to the long axis of the snowboard and a locked skiing position in which the long axis of the binding extends transversely to the long axis of the snowboard. After the binding has been rotated to a selected position, the binding is secured in place by a locking mechanism. Each binding includes a resilient front strap assembly and a resilient heel support which secures one of the user's feet to the binding and permits a user to quickly and easily remove his feet from the bindings in the event of a fall.
Revelation Snowboard makes a snowboard which has two sets of two parallel tracks and two sets of four T-nuts. Each set of the four T-nuts float within one of the two sets of the two parallel tracks and mechanically couples one of two bindings to one of the two sets of the two parallel tracks. Revelation Snowboard has a trademark, FREEDOM GROOVE, and a patent pending for its snowboard.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,584,492 teaches an adjustable snowboard binding which can be rotatably controlled without the use of external tools. A boot mounting platform. has a plurality of inwardly facing radial teeth along the circumference of a centralized circular cutout. A circumferential lip along the cutout is used to rotatably mount the platform via overlapping lipped quadrant segments which are mounted to the snowboard. Two radially sliding segments with teeth at their outer ends are held by the quadrant segments. A slidable band is mounted by actuating locking levers along the longitudinal length of the snowboard. The slidable band has upwardly extending posts which interface with angled slots formed in each sliding segment. In operation, the actuating levers are unlocked and the band slides forwards and backwards to effectuate radial movement of the sliding segments. This in turn effectuates locking engagement and disengagement between the radial circumferential teeth and the sliding segment teeth. The user performs this adjustment operation without removing the boot from the mounting platform and without loosening screws.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,586,779 teaches a binding which includes a mount plate which is fixedly mounted to a snowboard. The mount plate has a cavity centrally defined therein. A ring is fixedly attached to the mount plate which has a bore centrally defined therethrough. A hub mounts the binding to the snowboard. The hub is centrally disposed in the cavity and extends through the bore. The mount plate is free to rotate about the hub thereby allowing for adjustment of an angular position of the mount plate. A locking mechanism arrests and releases rotation of the mount plate thereby allowing the angular position of the mount plate to be adjusted. A user may quickly and easily adjust the angular position of binding relative to the snowboard without removing his boot from the binding.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,826,910 teaches a swivelable bindings assembly for a snowboard for selective rotational adjustment of the bindings about an axis normal to the upper surface of the snowboard which includes a rotatably adjustable bindings plate having a bottom surface, an upper portion adapted for releasably supporting a user's boot, and a relatively large diameter circular opening in the central portion of the plate. The assembly includes a holds-down disk that is received in the plate opening and is adapted to slidably engage edge portions of the plate opening to restrain the plate against upward separation from the disk and to hold the plate with its bottom surface slidably engaged with, and vertically supported by, the low-friction planar surface of a sheet of material secured to the top of the snowboard, the disk also serving to mount the plate for rotation about an axis through the center of the disk. Mechanism for releasably locking the plate at selected rotational positions includes a locking pin with an elongate shaft that engages a horizontal bore extending from an edge of the base plate to the base plate opening, the plate being rotatable to bring the bore in alignment with at least one recess in the outer edge of the disk whereby the pin shaft can be engaged in a selected recess to secure the plate against rotation. These bindings for snowboards can be adjusted with respect to its angular orientation to the longitudinal centerline of the snowboard. The recent surge in popularity of the sport of snowboarding has brought renewed interest in addressing certain problems that are unique to the sport, as opposed to other skiing endeavors such as alpine skiing and water skiing. First, it is noted that according to the conventional arrangement of bindings on a snowboard, fore and aft binding assemblies are secured to the board in a manner to support both feet at a substantial angle with respect to the longitudinal centerline of the board. This cross orientation of the bindings allows the user to assume a side-forward position necessary for optimum control of the board during active snowboarding. It is also noted that snowboarders often desire to modify the angle of the feet relative to the centerline of the board to achieve maximum performance during their run. Such changes in the angle of the feet can be necessitated by the degree of incline of the slope, the amount and quality of the snow encountered, or the amount of jumping desired during descent. When a down-hill run is completed it is necessary for the user to use self-propulsion methods to maneuver over flat terrain and to negotiate the life line and to get in position for pick up by a lift chair. In order to do this the snowboarder will commonly release the aft foot from its bindings so that he or she can use a "skateboarding" technique in which the free foot is used for propulsion. Unfortunately, because of the transverse orientation of the secured foot and the face-forward position that the maneuvering snowboarder tries to assume, the leg is forced towards an unnatural position causing stress and strain on the entire leg, including the vulnerable ankle and knee joints. Of course the snoboarder has the option of detaching both feet from the board and hand carrying the board in such circumstances, but such procedure is inconvenient and time consuming. Furthermore, the cross-orientation of the bindings can lead to difficulties when riding the lift chair, requiring the board to be held in an unwieldy manner that can interfere with a companion lift chair rider, and also causing stress and strain in the secured leg of the user. It has become evident that one way to address these problems would be in providing bindings that are adjustable with respect to their angular orientations to the board centerline.
World Patent No. 97/03733 teaches a device for positioning longitudinally a snowboard binding on a snowboard. The snowboard binding includes a binding plate. A rail is attached to the snowboard. The device includes a sliding member and a central stud which couples the sliding member to the rail section.
French Patent No. 2,715,861 teaches a device which includes a single central bolt which anchors a base plate of a snowboard. A C-shaped piece is anchored in the snowboard.
European Patent No. 351,298 teaches a device for positioning longitudinally a snowboard binding on a snowboard. U.S. Pat. No. 5,660,410 teaches a snowboard binding system. U.S. Pat. No. 5,261,689 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,356,170 also teach other snowboard binding systems of a popular type that which employ a hold-down disk that engages a circular opening in a boot mounting plate whose bottom is supported on a snowboard. A number of vertical bores through the hold-down disk allow it to be secured to threaded bores in the board using threaded bolts or screws, and ordinarily there are extra pairs of threaded bores in the board to allow adjustment between the fore and aft bindings in several different longitudinal positions, to accommodate the desired feet-apart stance of the rider. There are ridges or splines on the hold-down disk that engage complementary ridges or splines on the binding plate, to secure the plate at a given angular orientation. This will allow angular adjustment of the bindings, but unfortunately, to accomplish this, several bolts per hold-down disk, usually four, must be loosened using a suitable tool in order to loosen the disk sufficiently form the plate to allow rotation of the plate to a new orientation. The fasteners must then be retightened. The bindings system of U.S. Pat. No. 5,004,654 requires tightening and loosening on only a single bolt. Unfortunately, while the systems shown in above-mentioned patents allow angular adjustment, they share the major drawback in not allowing such adjustment to be made quickly, easily and conveniently, because they require removal of the boot from the bindings in each case, and the use of tools to loosen and tighten the fasteners. U.S. Pat. No. 5,354,088 show a snowboard binding that can be rapidly and easily removed from the board, should this be a solution to the above-discussed problems, but this disclosure does not show a means for rapidly adjusting the angle of the bindings. Relatively recent approaches to the need for rotatably adjustable bindings are revealed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,277,635 which teaches a system which is suited for use on water ski boards, however it appears that the locking mechanism would not be adequate for use in a snowboard environment. U.S. Pat. No. 5,499,837 teaches a locking mechanism which depends on specially formed vertically opposed undulating surfaces that can be brought in and out of engagement and which appears complex and expensive.